Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-03-19

The Kind of Mills the South Needs
The statements that the company re-
Gently organized at Camden, n. j., to
build and operate cotton seed oil mills In
a number Of Southern cities is making
contracts for machinery, and in other
ways preparing for business, are so posi-
tive that there is no longer any reason to
doubt that the mills will be built. 1t is,
OF course, to the interest OF cotton grow
ers who sell their cotton seed that the
American Cotton Seed Oil Trust Company
should have competition, because compe-
titIon will insure better prices for the
seed. II the Oil Trust has monopoly OF
the cotton oil manufacturing business it
can give what 1t pleases for cotton seed
and demand unreasonable prices for its
manufactured products.
But ii would be far better for cotton
growers II they could have cooperative
mills within their reach to which they
could take their cotton seed and receive
back the manufactured product. The
oil would meet their share Of the expenses
of the mills and yield them surplus per-
haps equal to what they now get for the ir
cotton seed. They would have besides
the oil cake, which is not only nutri-
tious food for cattle, but is most excel
lent fertilizer. There is probably no bet
ter fertilizer than the drsppings of cattle
fed upon oil cake.
At the meeting Of the Agricultural So
ciety OF this State last August, DR.. A.
Oemler OF this city made an address on
| G.Eartilitv and Manurin0 in which ha
called attention to the value Of cotton
seed as fertilizer. Among other things
on this point ne said: at is we'll said
the more manure the more crops, but to
| no part Of the world can the reverse-the
more crops the more manure-be applied
with as much justice as TO these blessed
| Southern States OF the republic. Cotto n
| lint is less exhaustive of fertility than
any other crop, and none yields a
secondary product so valuable. and
80 rich in all the elements or
plant food as cotton seed, which, however,
is nine and halt times as expensive.
Farmers have practically verified the
| fact that 1t ls the most concentrated
stock food in existence, and that after
having been fed to animals, the manure
they void is richer in fertiliZing matter
| than that from any other food.
"If the manure from a ton OF turnips
be worth Sec, then that from a ton OF
cotton seed meal is worth $27 more. In
other words, in a msnurial sense cotton
seed meal as food is worth about twice as
much as peas, nearly four times as much
as oats, more than four times as much as
corn meal or meadow hay and thirty-two
times as much as turnIps.
| "JOseph Harris In his valuable book
| Talks on Manures, estimates the value of
manure from ton of undecorticated cot,
ton seed cake to be worth SO "a. When,
therefore, farmer sells his cotton seed
at his gin to the mill owner at 121ac. per
| bushel net, he not only loses the benefit
his cattle would derive from the nu-
tritiops food, but 81 so cash per ton in the
estimated value of the manure"
| 1t is not wise to use the cotton seed as
a fertilizer for two reasons. First, be-
| cause every ton of seed contains $14
worth OF oil, and the oil would be wasted;
| and, second, because the oil in the seed is
much more likely to inju-e than benefit
a crop. The meal even is liable to be too
rich fertilizer. 1t is better that it should
be fed to cattle, and their droppings US ed
for fertilizing purposes.
| The use OF fertilizers is increasing
enormously IN the South. Statistics show
that Georgia bought last year more tons
of fertilizers than any other State in the
| Union. Without them it is about i'm
possible to grow good crop Of cotton or
anything else. While hundreds of thou
sands Of dollars are being annually paid
out by farmers and planters for manufsc-
tured fertilizers, they neglect, to a great
| extent, that which is the best of all, and
which many of them have in quantities
on their farms and plantations.
Two things would greatly enrich the
ootton-growing section OF the South. One
is mills, cooperative or other kind, In
every neighborhood, where cotton grew
ers could take their cotton seed and get
| it manufactured into Oil and oil cake just
as the farmers Of the North now take
their wheat and corn to mill and have it
ground into flour and meal. The other
thing is cattle to consume the meal. The
meal would fatten the cattle and make
them profitable. and the droppings
OF the cattle would enrich
the land and MAKE it yield
profitable crops. When this condition of
affairs is reached the cotton sec ton of
the South will be the richest in the world.
AS the cotton section Is cultivated at
present it is getting poorer. The profits
are not sufficient to purchase the quanti-
ty of fertilizers required to supply the
annual loss in fertility.